Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Face of Change

Bob Dylan declared in the 1960's that The Times They are a Changin' and we've probably reached a point in our contemporary history where these changes will remain constant. Change can be a challenge for many of us where we are forced out of our comfort zones and placed in very risky situations that may expose our weaknesses, biases, and fears. Change can also be exciting for many of us where we embrace the idea of being pushed to our limits and are comfortable exposing our weaknesses and willing to learn from such shortcomings.

I imagine that we would all place ourselves somewhere in the spectrum when considering the change that takes place in our own lives, both professionally and personally. However, I would like to take but a moment to point out some very exciting changes that are occurring at our school.

The first monumental change is that we have begun to craft and design a Shared Vision for our school. "What does our school stand for? What do we believe in? What do we value?" These are questions that we are beginning to answer but it certainly takes time to develop. Interestingly enough, when we all first met the Principal framed these questions within a 21st Century context and the challenges we face.

In the wake of that first conversation we did not carve out any answers, rather we were left with questions, questions that were bigger than ourselves. Despite this however, we came together and began talking about the future, talking about how we can become the best school in America, literally.

A couple weeks have gone by since that first meeting and there are still no answers, but very constructive conversations are everywhere in our building and the morale is sky high. From my observations I believe that the staff has overwhelmingly embraced this idea of change and we are willing to expose our strengths and weaknesses in an effort to construct not only a Shared Vision but the true sense of what it means to be a Learning Community.